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Rob Carr@robcarr.bsky.social |
67 followers 102 following 207 posts
Former paramedic, former biochemist, former Director of Communications, former instructor, former young person.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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The version sold in stores in the USA has chiral ink but the panels are all hexagons and pentagons. Another ball with a different paint job has both right handed and left handed areas around hexagons and appears symmetrical. I have a headache. I'm not great at 3D visualization.
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Howard Lee
@hlee.bsky.social
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A profoundly worthwhile thread 👇🧪 🍎 - AI generated crap is leaking into non-AI searches, contaminating fact-checking, potentially corrupting education 🚨
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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How much cheaper would it have been when he chaired the committee than dealing with the damage climate change will cost now?
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Sorry. The topic and the image of Spock in mind-meld pain reminded me of a couple cringe-worthy instances recently where folks wrote as if evolution was doing something deliberately. I've been trying to think of wording that avoids that error. Your post hit home. My train of thought hit home.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Better writers and scientists than I slip into language implying or saying that evolution has a goal or is doing something or is aware. Sometimes I don't notice them making that mistake. Sometimes I don't notice myself making that mistake.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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So in general, if a different word doesn't exist, you use other words to clarify the concept. It doesn't mean the concept doesn't exist. You can also invent a new word! Or, if it's English, you mug the other language in a dark alley and steal the word you need!
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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If you want Eis in your root beer, the context isn't clear. You could want a root beer float or you could want water ice cubes to make it colder. So you use more words. Vanilla, cubes, water, etc. I hope no one puts a rapper in your root beer. ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I recently discovered German doesn't have separate words for poisonous and venomous. German also doesn't have separate words for ice and ice cream. Eis is assumed to be ice cream by context. If you ask for an ice bath for your Erlenmeyer flask, no one would give you Rocky Road. ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I'm picturing every biologist and English major I know (the English major is an MD) smiling and saying "It has pockets!"
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I'm joking. It looks like it does something. But what if that's us unable to understand that evolution is only random? I'm joking, but what if it's not a joke? Vaults bother and fascinate me, too.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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What if it's just small enough that it didn't evolve away in favor of something that lost it? It's a doohicky that is 6 standard deviations of unlikely. What if it wound up in a section of DNA highly protected for something else. It's the luckiest set of molecules on Earth. ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Dumb question: Evolution is dumb. It's random. It's not even "survival of the fittest," it's survival of what survives. Usually that's fittest, but not always. What if vaults are just something useless that evolved that, despite having absurd numbers of copies in almost any cell, has no "use"? ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Define a plane bisecting the vertical writing. If you rotate it 180 degrees in that plane, ignoring the paint, does it look the same? What does the bottom look like? I'm also assuming the valve doesn't count. That would complicate things. I wonder if they sell them at a local sports store?
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I'm also a sucker for that style of artwork.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Your book looks interesting! Horizontal evolution is weird. Something as important to evolution as viruses- that aren't alive - is bizarre. I like bizarre. Its amazing the number of textbooks I own for classes I never took: and read. This is going on the list.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Have they taught you about evolutionary paths where an organism gets trapped and can't evolve out when the environment changes? Evolution is random and stupid. Although I wonder if an organism could evolve to be better at a type of evolution? Not sure I can explain that thought.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I was explaining to my wife a humorous quote about evolution, and I paraphrased the old "Boltzmann committed suicide, his student committed suicide, and now we will take up the topic of statistical thermodynamics" Cirrus the CAG heard this and made a loud mournful "Wooo!" 🦉
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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And here's the article I got it from, with a nice description of a fascinating way viruses have affected evolution:
www.noemamag.com/viruses-are-...
And yes, I was so happy I remembered the alt text on the image, I forgot to add the 🧪
I hope including it here suffices.
1 replies 6 reposts 14 likes
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I'm so old, my brain is fascinated by how much incomplete or wrong information I learned in college. In a great article on placentas and a retrovirus, I saw the following:
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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People are already writing nonsense on the Internet in a volume one person has no hope of competing with. I keep running across people who don't believe viruses exist ?!?! It's bad enough that humans are making up false "facts". AI contributing to it is terrifying.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Was ist "Bundesverdienstkreuz"? Hoffentlich nicht für Umweltschutz.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Ich habe ein bisschen zu viel erinnert. Entschuldigung.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Unsere Taser sehen und fühlen anders als Pistole. Aber unsere Polizei kann immer noch die falsche Waffe einsetzen. Wenn Rettungsdienern hat auf unsere Krankenwagen mitgekommen, möchten sie ein Schießen sehen. Sie haben es nicht in Deutschland gesehen.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Danke. Ich habe gedacht dass Anscheinwaffe meint Spielwaffe für Kinder wie Nerfwaffen. Wir nutzen auch Gummipistolen in einige Training in Rettungsdienst (EMS). Ich bin Amerikaner. Was soll man sagen.🤷
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Was wir in die Vereinigten Staaten "Stun Gun" nennen? Sie sind gelb oder orange. Eine Pistole, die Drähte abfeuert, die einen elektrischen Strom abgeben, der Menschen außer Gefecht setzt. Habe ich dass richtig übersetzt?
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Chemists: This morning, the instant coffee was almost out. I fought hard to get my teaspoon of coffee. My wife opened a new container and dumped the remainder of the old coffee in. Not the first time. I accepted it, but one eye twitched. Anyone else bothered by that?
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Ibid.
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Gretchen McCulloch
@gretchenmcc.bsky.social
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Hey. The fragmentation of the social media landscape has been hard on indie #scicomm 🧪 projects
So if you'd like to follow a podcast that's enthusiastic about #linguistics, could you check out @lingthusiasm.bsky.social?
And if you think your followers might like to, could you give this a repost?
1 replies 92 reposts 84 likes
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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@eshekhova.bsky.social Looking for ideas for dinner, saw "Baker of LumiPie" and went looking for the recipe.
😳🙄🤦😆🤣
Will look back later when I am done grocery shopping!
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Maybe forming mitochondria isn't so difficult that they're not why we're not getting buzzed by aliens. (Sorry, we're not.) Maybe it's something else like politicians or forming continental plates that move is tough. My money is on politicians. I could be wrong. I'm not Lane. 🧪🧬🦠🧫 11 and done
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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There's reason to suspect the fight for control was vicious and seems to have involved mutually assured destruction. Did you know mitochondria can get up to 50C? Runaway, they can damage cells? But maybe forming mitochondria isn't The Great Filter. 🧪🧬🦠🧫 10 ⬇️ 10
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I must be a fool to disagree with Nick Lane. He's brilliant. I'm...me. I read his books. I haven't written mine. Yet. But it's 2024 and I know about Nitroplasts. Don't get me wrong. Evolving mitochondria was difficult, and may have taken multiple tries. 🧪🧬🦠🧫 9 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Chloroplasts gave up market share (ecological niches) to a competitor, but not by much. Not quite the killer app. Nitroplasts? They're good, but don't upset the market terribly. What else is lurking in the ocean with some sort of ok organelle? I bet there's more. 🧪🧬🦠🧫 8⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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What if forming mitochondria is tricky, but once formed, outcompetes any attempt to form something like mitochondria? In the study of the origin of life, there's a theory that, once life actually arose, it prevents new life arising by outcompeting it. It's the first to market! 🧪🧬🦠🧫 7 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Chloroplasts are great but not as popular as mitochondria. The chloroplast-like thing I still have to look up. Nitroplasts are in every ocean and important to fixing nitrogen, but...they're ok. What if forming organelle-like things is powerful, not rare? 🧪🧬🦠🧫 6 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Mitochondria were clearly the greatest thing before sliced bread. Multicellular creatures are everywhere using mitochondria. We use mitochondria! Chloroplasts were the second greatest thing before sliced bread. Another chloroplast-like thing was the third. 🧪🧬🦠 5 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Recently, the discovery of nitroplasts was announced. Nitroplasts formed 100 million years ago and fix nitrogen. There are now 4 known organelles formed by absorbing another cell. Does that make it less rare? Or does it tell us something else? 🧪 4 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Lane pointed out how rare this was. Could this be a very unusual event? Between capturing a cell and the fight for control, going to complicated multicellular life might be incredibly difficult. Was this The Great Filter? Was most of the life in our galaxy simple single cells? 🧪 3 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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He pointed out that forming mitochondria turned archaea into a eukaryote. It made multicellular life possible. Cell needs go up with the cube, energy production goes up with the square. The wrinkly mitochondrion solves that problem. 2 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Why Am I Interested in Nitroplasts? On Feb. 21, 2017 for Darwin Day, Nick Lane spoke about mitochondria. He mentioned that, at that time, there were only 2½ examples of a cell turning another cell into an organelle: mitochondria, chloroplasts, and maybe one that was in the process. 🧪🦠🧫🧬 1 ⬇️
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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The algae with nitroplasts already produce a significant fraction of the fixed nitrogen worldwide. Nitroplasts may have already found their niche. The article says they evolved 100 million years ago (after the start of dinosaurs!). Humans adding nitroplasts into land plants might be difficult.
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Tamreen
@scriptor.bsky.social
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for a sense of scale, the last time this happened plants evolved not a specific species or something. Literally just Plants
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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It looks great to me.
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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When reading something in German, I have to watch for things I might misunderstand. In technical writing, it may be less likely. Americans even initialize electrocardiogram "EKG." Politics and economic news are where it's worst. I don't know abbreviations and my vocabulary isn't deep enough. /4
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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It shook me up. Could I misunderstand something? But that problem has always been there. Scientific names for organisms were created to avoid misunderstandings. When reading anti-vaxxer screeds, I'm well aware that they and I may not attach the same meanings to words. /3
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I've been working with Duolingo to refresh my German. I've discovered I can read some articles (biochemistry, cardiology, astrophysics, & Star Trek) easily. Then I discovered something that "didn't translate." /2
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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I'd probably call it a "tree farm." Even there, it brings up images of Christmas tree farms. Our timber industry has apparently been very careful about maintaining idyllic illusions in their ads. /1
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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Translation [And again, “forest” is confused with “woodland”. The forest is doing well, it can adapt. The forest is doing badly because it has not adapted.] In this case, I don't know the difference between "Wald" and "Forst." Is there a distinction in German, similar to poisonous and venomous?
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Rob Carr
@robcarr.bsky.social
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